Personal computers and portable/mobile computing devices, such as laptop computers, Tablet computers, notebook computers, sub-notebook computers and handheld computing devices, etc., as well as other present and future variants of portable/mobile computing devices, are sometimes used to transmit content to a third party device for manipulation or rendering. Such portable or mobile computing devices will be referred to herein simply as “mobile computing devices” or “mobile devices” without limitation. For instance, mobile devices can be used in situations, such as meetings, to display a presentation on a display, such as a large format display surface, e.g., projector or monitor, in the meeting environment. Currently, when such a situation arises, users making presentations using a mobile computer physically connect the portable/mobile computer via a cable to the projector or to an intermediate electronic system that controls the projector. However, laptop users wanting to present in a conference room must sit close to the projector control and swap VGA, and possibly also audio cables to present. The cord is typically not long enough and causes a musical chairs effect between every presentation as people move around to get the right person close enough to plug in their laptop. A user may then have to adjust screen resolution and/or audio settings each time a new presenter takes control of the projector display. In addition, users ideally want to project their display not just to the conference room projector but also to the laptops of various attendees in the meeting room.
The need to physically connect a cable, however, is undesirable for a variety of reasons. First, it requires a user with the mobile computing device to know that the mobile computing device can connect and also how to connect the mobile computing device, i.e., to know that their mobile computing device includes a connector or port for receiving the projector cable, and that such a connection plus some combination of obscure keystrokes (e.g., function key plus F5 key) switches the output of the portable or mobile computing device from the ordinary display of the mobile computing device to the port. Secondly, anytime one or more physical steps are introduced in a computing process, the time it takes to complete the process increases. For instance, a user must bring the mobile device to the cable, connect the cable, and secure the connection so that disconnection does not happen easily. Moreover, to the extent that male and female connector components are physical components, they are subject to abuse, and ordinary wear and tear. For instance, often the pins of a connector can become bent, damaged, metal fatigued, etc. in which case the connector components, either male or female, may no longer function properly.
In addition, the content/data that is ultimately sent to the projector cannot be simultaneously viewed on the computers of meeting attendees. While wireless technology is rapidly gathering momentum in the marketplace, currently, there is no generic mechanism for receiving wireless data by a display, such as a projector. Moreover, there is no generic mechanism for a mobile device to wirelessly transmit content to a display, such as a projector. Still further, there is no generic mechanism for third party computing devices to receive content.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art to add wireless technology to projectors to allow easy access for mobile users, enabling the ability to bring together a plurality of mobile users into the same room for collaborative meetings and providing a seamless connection where a wired solution is not practical. Furthermore, there is a need in the art to remove issues associated with cabling, making projectors easier to install and tidier, without signal degradation over longer distances. Moreover, there is a need in the art to switch between multiple mobile device sources, for example, if multiple people are presenting from their mobile devices. It would be still further desirable to provide a mechanism and corresponding user interface to allow users to find available wireless projectors or other computers, change or enable settings and connect specified content to them. Similarly, on the receiving side, it would be desirable to include a mechanism and corresponding user interface for users of other computers to accept “projected” content/data from a source mobile computer.